Food – not what it used to be

I guess one of the first changes in Ben’s personality was his dramatic change in feeding habits. He went from eating damn near anything to eating ONLY food that crunched and food that was beige in color. He will be 3 in April and we still have to hand feed him babyfood out of a jar. He began eating baby food in July about once or twice a week. Prior to being a year old he ate beans, rice, meat, spaghetti, potatoes, sweet potatoes was a favorite, corn, peas, squash, blueberries, strawberries, apples, carrots, did I say squash? He loved it all, especially if we were eating it too. On February 6, 2007 there is a note in Erica’s journal that said, “Eating table food, ate an entire table meal today, turkey, carrots, peas, corn, and yogurt. You talk non-stop. ”

Ben breast fed until he was old got too greedy at the spigot and would chew on it causing the spigot great pain. But Ben was eating all kinds of stuff prior to his being cut off from the spigot. But around August 2006,September 2006 he started loosing ground on his weight, where he once was in at 95% he is now starting to slide. At 6 months he was at 75%, at 9 months 50% and at a year 30% and at 16 months 25%.

At 18 months, October 19, 2007 he received his DTaP and possibly a flu shot

We pretty much let you eat whatever you wanted to help get your weight up. If you wanted cake, have two pieces, whatever it took. Mostly up until you just stopped, your favorite foods were sweet potatoes and carrots. I remember because his body was stained orange from all the orange food he used to eat.

When Ben stopped eating “real” food we never really saw it as a problem. We knew he used to like it and just figured he was being stubborn. We put the foods on his plate, thinking if he is hungry enough he will eat it but most meals consisted of Cheerios and baby-food.

After the discovery of the possibility of Ben being autistic we immediately went to the casein free, low gluten diet. We introduced fish oil and some vitamin supplements and noticed an improvement right away with eye contact and show of affection.

For the past 18 months Ben’s breakfast has been yogurt with fish oil, and a super dose of vitamins and minerals. We have just, in the past couple of months, introduced a toxin cleanser and lysine as well. The diet is under the advisement of his doctor and seems to help. We have not stopped it to see if we notice changes.

There is some concern his body will become addicted, lack of a better word, to having this stuff introduced externally by artificial means and will have to maintain this the rest of his life. (still hoping for full recovery)

If it is beige and crunchy chances are Ben might try it. If it isn’t he may just gag or vomit just looking at it or touching it. The first time I saw this was on Mother’s Day when I placed a strawberry (he used to love them) on his plate and he touched it and gagged. Erica said he does it frequently when introduced a food item he dislikes.

We don’t know if it is texture or sight, or maybe the thought of what it would be like to eat. His occupational therapist who is working on his sensory issues thinks it is a combination. At one time thinking maybe he forgot how to chew and he experienced that crunchy things smash easily and don’t seem to be broken up, like maybe a string bean is or meat causing a choking episode. There has been thought that it is a safety issue with him. Maybe he had a bad experience with some sort of food product and steers clear of things that remind him of the “bad” item.

Whatever it is he just won’t eat “normal” foods. Every now and then he will eat something and we will get so excited. See, we introduce things to him all the time and are rejected about 95% of the time. I remember the time he ate a french fry (now one of his favorites) I was so excited. To me a french fry is one step from a chicken mcnugget and once that frenchfrychickenmcnugget kids meal gets washed down with a coke, then heck fire, the boy has consumed a lunch every kid eats, something worth celebrating. Next thing you know he’ll want one of those fried apple pies. Can’t get anymore normal than that huh? Fingers crossed!

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